Meetings With Remarkable Magicians

When I began booking shows things seemed a lot different. To begin with I was about 14 years old and my target shows were children’s parties. It has been a long time since I booked a kid’s show, but believe me I would do it again tomorrow if the price and location were right.

I suspect the majority of paying shows in the magic community are still kid’s shows. Magic has always been largely considered an entertainment for children. Even casinos and cruise ships, two other major markets for magicians, are really just playgrounds for adults with disposable income, they only occasionally where silly paper hats though.

The general rule of thumb when I was booking those early dates in my career was to run a short classified advert in the local paper and then bedazzle the potential client when they phoned you in response to it. You usually had a glossy brochure that you could mail them to ‘seal the deal.’ I suspect this approach still does work rather nicely if you replace the brochure with a promotional video of some kind and throw a website into the mix.

Back in the 60s, when I was booking these kind of dates the second line of attack was less proactive but even more effective—you did the very best show you could, priced it carefully and then waited for word of mouth to increase your workload with more dates. It was simple and seemed to work very well.

Being a magician and raised on stories of Houdini, and his great publicity stunts, you probably also dreamed and strove to emulate his success by engineering some kind of publicity stunt to make your name better known through that curious beast known as ‘exposure.’ If you could pull of some great feat, which got your name mentioned in the local newspaper for free—then the bookings would flood in. Right. Hmmmm.

Eventually if you wanted to expand your source of work you entered the scary world of agents. These were mysterious beings that seem to offer access to more clients, but at the cost of removing your personal access to the actual individuals who wrote the checks. Not only were you suspicious of the process but first you also had to find one!

This step tended to stop a lot of performers who somehow felt that the agent was a person who actually somehow stood in the way of you getting the gig. It didn’t matter if you never even knew the booking existed. The main reason for this mistrust was because the agent represented several clients and one of their other acts might be more suitable and get the gig instead of you. That is the trade-off, if you don’t like it tough—go back to the classified ads.

The important part about working with a legitimate agent is to realize that this variety of clients and performers is what they bring to the table. It’s how they earn their rather modest fee. They really don’t care who gets the gig (unlike you, the performer involved) but they do have a very vested interest in making sure that the gig works out for the buyer. The client, make no mistake, is the booker who writes the check for the gig. If it is a success then that buyer might become a client for the agent.

Of course you don’t need an agent to work, but he doesn’t need you either, so let me pass on four simple guidelines that help when dealing with an agent.

1 He/She is not ‘the enemy’ or a necessary evil, he is part of the route you need to become a more highly paid and fully booked performer. I hear many ‘somewhat professional’ performers rant about agents, when maybe they should look at their own acts and ethics more closely.

2 To steal a client from an agent is immoral, incorrect and foolish. If he gets a new buyer to purchase your services—then he deserves his percentage of any future booking made from his booking. Take a bunch of his/her cards to the gig and hand them out—not your own.

3 Do not expect an agent to care as much about you as he does himself or his revenue inducing contacts. Why should he? You work for the agent and not him for you. This isn’t Broadway Danny Rose. Get real and stay there!

4 Give him the best publicity material you can and don’t promise more than you can deliver. The first act will help you get the gig and the second action will screw it up if you do get the gig. Always remember you may lose that agent a long-term client and a steady source of income by a foolish promise or boast.

I’m going to stop here, if you follow these basic steps you are already streets ahead of most of those strange creatures that describe themselves in the non-reality term ‘semi-pros…’

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Agents for magicians, Booking a magic show, Performing Comedy Magic for big bucks

This is a blog entry that shouldn’t need to be written so obviously I am going to do it anyhow! I am often amazed at how little class magicians show the audience members who assist them during their show. While this isn’t a gigantic epidemic, it is really ugly when it arises.

Every now and then you see a magician treat an audience member in a dismissive manner that really borders on insulting. Let’s put this in perspective, I consider giving them insufficient instructions about what they are supposed to be doing onstage is definitely high on this list. It ain’t right.

When someone is removed from their seat in the cozy dark of the audience and thrust into the brightly lit stage environment they need to be paid attention to. You don’t need to handle them with kid gloves but you should certainly have the courtesy to look at them and talk to them and not use them as unpaid props.

The confusion that can result from dropping the assistant unexpectedly in the middle of things and allowing very natural tentativeness and their lack of awareness of what’s going to happen and what their role is supposed to be, should not be used to garner a single solitary laugh. Act classy and the crowd will assume (even if totally mistakenly) that you are classy—- it’s money in the bank to a smart performer actually.

You shouldn’t bully an asistant by repeatedly harassing them about whether the ball is under the cup or in your pocket. The damn thing is a Chop Cup and the ball is where ever you want it to be! Are they there as a genuine representative of the audience or as a butt for laughter from the rest of the audience—who are just delighted it isn’t them up there!

If ever there was a moment to clear out any hack lines from your presentation it is when they are directed at an audience volunteer. You may not believe this but as recently as this month I heard someone deliver the old, “Give me your hand, no the clean one! Oh that was the clean one!” I will add, “Give me your left hand, no, your other left hand,” to this outdated and ‘can’t discard fast enough’ list.

Let your assistant get a laugh or two of their own, with a little bit of thought you can create a moment or two where this is likely to happen. Often your assistant will genuinely say something that is funny—-and which you can quietly make funnier with your take on the line. When this happens, make a point of selling it to the audience. Take the time to at least pretend to crack up (no-matter how many times you may have heard the response before) and say jokingly say something like, “I love it when the audience is funnier than I am!”

Having said all the above, I must be honest and admit that watching Amazing Johnathan ignore/decimate/ridicule/deride and generally bully his onstage dollar bill donor is one of my primal joys in comedy magic! However, AJ is a force of nature and has the ability to re-write any laws of good taste that apply to other performers. He is also one of the most genuinely likeable comedian magicians working today. That is why it works.

If you want laughs in your act then do something funny or write a good joke, don’t pick on somebody who is unprepared for what is going to happen; while you have the situation pre-planned and pre-set jokes galore. Look at the big picture and be funny and classy—think about the way Michael Finney involves (a very carefully chosen word there—involves) his onstage assistant during his classic rope routine.

While mentioning Michael, I want to congratulate him on the 6-month contract he just signed to appear in the new show ‘Avant Garde’ at the newly re-gentrified Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. His run begins in February and if you have the chance to catch him then DO SO. You can forget everything I’ve written here and just go watch someone who has done it right for so long that it is second nature!

Email me at nicklewin1@mac.com    

Posted in Entertainment News, Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: audience members, Michael Finney, Performance of Magic, Performing Comedy Magic for big bucks

The devastating speed and totality of the sinking of the luxury cruise ship Concordia recently was a shock to many of us who spend a lot of time onboard large cruise ships. It was really only a matter of time before something like this happened but the mind puts these things aside. The recent media on this disaster quickly puts it on the front burner.

It is still to early to sort out a definitive view of what happened that night, but nothing about it is very reassuring. As a veteran who has been working on cruise ships, on and off, since the early seventies I am aware that safety is no small concern with the companies who own and operate these ‘floating cities.’ However, at the very least it has made me realize how cavalier I (and many other entertainers) have become about important little details such as actually knowing exactly where our lifeboats are, let alone actually attending the passenger boat drills that our highly desirable passenger stature demand.

To passengers in general the boat drill is seen as something of a routine formality. Hmmmmm, I guess not. The fact that the Concordia sank so close to land saved many, many lives I suspect. Obviously you have to wonder why it was so very close to land that it happened, especially on a route it covered every week. The chaos that has been described is worrying, to say the least. The magician onboard elledgedly seems to have left his assistant stuck inside a Zig-Zag illusion! I won’t say what I think about that until I hear definitively if it is true or not.  If it is true then shame on him.

However, when disaster strikes, rational thought can jump out the window–or porthole. As a matter of fact, so can rational actions; what good is it rushing to your lifeboat station on the port side of the ship if that side of the ship is raised at a 45 degree angle and the lifeboats won’t lower? This seems to have been the case. What is needed is a very clear understanding of the layout of the vessel and a clear understanding of the situation that is unfolding. The first is easy to undertake and master, the second is a little tougher and more difficult if things are confused, chaotic and you are literally and figuratively in the dark.

What needs to be kept in mind is that if a situation such as this occurs it isn’t a case of ‘every man for himself’ but of ‘everyman THINK for himself’ and then try and improve the knowledge and plans of those around you. Those of us who live, work and make money on cruise ships have an added responsibility (aside from the natural, understandable basic role of saving ourselves) to try and be aware in contributing to the best possible dissemination of sensible information to those less conditioned to the geography of ships than ourselves.

Am I worried that I am sailing away again the day after tomorrow on a cruise ship? No. I am convinced that the majority of cruise ships are meticulously prepared for most emergencies—-God forbid they happen though. It might not occur within swimming distance of the coastline. It might not be as clear cut situation as emergency training drills tend to present when they are held. Let’s use this terrible example as a guideline to raise each of our personal levels of preparedness. I became an entertainer on a ship to make people laugh, I would feel pretty bad if, in an emergency, I couldn’t use my superior shipboard knowledge to save a life (as well, as my own) by doing so.

This is awake-up call. Let’s make sure it wakes us up a little………..     

Posted in Entertainment News
Tags: Concordia disaster, cruise ship performing

Many of the greatest characters I have met in the magic world were not the celebrities or the famous magicians. In fact sometimes it can be downright disappointing how ordinary the big name folks can be.

One of the blessings in our strange universe is some of the peripheral players who enrich the daily life of the performing magician. Some of them don’t even perform much magic, but make up for it by being audience members of the highest order.

One of the great meeting spots, or should I say watering holes, of this special breed of magic aficionados used to be Friday lunch at the Magic Castle. It was always a joyful exchange of gossip and good will and there were also the amazing beef ribs that were served exclusively on these occasions.

Two of my very favorite people used to attend these luncheons in the ‘70s with a regularity that made the workings of Big Ben seem erratic. These two characters were Stan Gray and Stanley Blumenthal and they were a splendid pair of jokers to add to the Castle’s deck of magicians.

Stanley was a cigar salesman by trade and the most enthusiastic supporter of magic you could ever find. If you were performing a gig in some local club or dive, chances are that Stanley would turn up (and pay his admission-no freeloader was Stanley) and be right there in the audience with a big smile on his face. He would laugh heartily at all the right places as if he had never heard the joke before.

The only piece of magic I ever saw Stanley perform was a curious bit of business where he removed the wrapper from a cigar and then stretched it out until it resembled a gigantic condom. If it sounds strange believe me it was! The little gizmos he used to achieve this result had something to do (I believe) with the casings used to manufacture sausages. I have about a dozen of these little gimmicks left that Stanley gave me and I keep them in a beautiful wooden cigar box he gave me too. I treasure them.

Stan Gray was a character of different sort and as brash as the day is long, but he shared the enthusiasm of his namesake when it came to his appreciation of the magical arts. Stan was a tour bus driver for the Gray Line- no family connection sadly! He used to entertain his tourists with a trick or two during their sight seeing tours of California.

Stan always said he did it because he made more money in tips but he never fooled me. Stan couldn’t resist a captive audience and a chance to entertain them. There was nothing that Stan could do to support magic that he didn’t do. Nothing was too much trouble if he thought that it would help out a fellow magician.

Now, I realize that neither one of these two gentlemen will be too familiar to most of my readers but they are the heart and the soul of what magic should be all about. Both have long since passed away but in this strange and quirky memoir of magic that I seem to be writing they both deserve a special mention and tip of the hat. If you did know either of them then I am sure you will recall them with a fond smile. If you didn’t know them you will just have to take my word for it that they were as deeply entwined in the fabric of magic as Shimada and Copperfield,

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Stan Gray, Stanley Blumenthal

Last night we attended the press night for ‘The Las Vegas Magic Theatre’ at the Gold Coast Hotel. It was a nicely organized event that showcased producer Paul Stone’s idea for a new multi-night revolving cast magic show. Given the current state of business in Vegas it is a very bold endeavor to attempt this kind of show in a local’s casino and I wish him really well with his future goals.

The showroom began it’s life at the Gold Coast as a slightly too large Cowboy Dancehall and has been adjusted for various events since, most notably that perennially great little gem ‘Forever Plaid.’ The room is now split in two by a large curtain, which allows for close-up magic to be performed from 6.00-7.00pm before the audience enter the ‘showroom’ section and sit to watch the show. The format is old fashioned in its plan and execution, but that isn’t always a bad thing with magic. The feeling is very much that of an evening in the Magic Castle without the decor and ambiance that the Castle provides.

We didn’t get to watch much of the pre-show close up magic, hey—this was a press event with excellent free food and drink! However, I caught all the main show. Paul’s son Ben Stone who had the charm and energy to really keep the show together very nicely hosted it. He also displayed a fine singing voice that added some nice texture to the proceedings. He performed a great duet with the lovely Jasmine Trias from the ‘The Society of Seven.’ This segment should have been highlighted a little more rather than the manner in which it was interjected into headliner Murray’s show.

Ben also performed some good-natured comedy magic during a set in the show. The set was a little to long and could have used some tightening and shortening to increase the effectiveness of the evening. Less is so often more with an MC and Ben’s singing talents were quite enough to establish his credentials and ability to anchor the show.

Opening the bill was comedy magician Adam Flowers and dove act Michael Douglas. They were both fairly standard and would have made good performers for a Castle brunch show, however they didn’t really cover any new ground or re-explore/redefine old territory to add to the proceedings. There were a couple too many opening acts!

Stealing the show (as almost always happens in an all magic bill!) was the non-magician, in this case the comedy and juggling of Michael Goudeau. Michael was a riot and smoothly took his show from one big laugh to another. Michael was the featured act in Lance Burton’s show at the Monte Carlo and his smooth performance re-establishes how smart Lance was in his choice.  Assisting Goudeau was the very funny Tommie Laing, who was also very familiar to those of us who had seen Lance’s show. Goodeau really kicked the show into high gear and up a couple of notches!

We were sitting with old friend Mike Weatherford the variety reviewer for the Las Vegas Revue Journal. Mike’s immediate response to Goudeau was to wonder how long it had been since Lance (who was in the audience) had actually seen Michael perform his show! Later discussion with Lance indicated it had been about 20 years! Mike and I also just looked at each other when Ben Stone produced two sponge balls and simultaneously said, “I wonder how Jan is doing?” a spontaneous reference to the widow of long term Vegas magician Steve Dacri. We miss you Steve.

The headliner of the show was Murray (Sawchuck) who performed a very strong set. Murray has charm, style and a quirky ‘daffy’ personality that is the launching pad for an act that combines low key and funny comedy bits with a very strong and slick set of illusions. He is an excellent performer with an instant appeal to any audience. I thoroughly enjoyed his very accomplished performance and could have used a little longer watching him work.

The evening was a very pleasant experience but the real test is as to whether this format will work in a local casino. The real magic (as in every Vegas showroom) is going to be to fill those seats on a weekly/nightly basis. The basic idea and execution of the evening are very reminiscent of a mainstream version of Jeff McBride’s ‘Wonderground.’ You might even refer to it as ‘Overground,’ but part of the flare that sets ‘Wonderground’ apart is that it is a monthly event which really establishes it as an ‘event’ on the scene. A multi-night weekly format is a lot tougher to remain a viable contender. However if there is a producer with the drive to make this work (and also the key ability to coax to vital ‘guest’ performances from local magicians) then Paul Stone is the chap to do it. Good luck, go get ‘em Paul.

Incidentally, the photo (‘I’m magic’d out!’) of me and Mike Weatherford that accompanies this blog entry is POSED! We really weren’t drunk or exhausted. Well only very slightly………..

Posted in Entertainment News, Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Ben Stone, Michael Goudeau, Murray Sawchuck, Vegas Magic Theatre

At this time of year it is certainly a nice exercise to come up with seven resolutions for the upcoming year. I thought I would share them with our readers. Your job is to decide which are serious and which are not!

1  Throw away all the silks in my act that have frayed edges on them or weird stains in them. Part two of this resolution is to make sure that any rope I use in my act looks brand new and fresh. This is a cheap and easy way to subtly improve the act. I should also remake my tossed deck too, well, maybe that can wait another year. Should I replace my thumb tip too? I just got it really nicely broken in—damn, I probably should.

 2   Keep performing David Regal’s ‘Restored Credit’ trick on every occasion possible. The fastest, flashiest and most eye-popping piece of magic I have added to my repertoire in a long time. It was a great holiday present from my pal ESP Lodge—-thanks SP! On a similar note I had better re-make my set of ‘Extreme Burn’ bills having spent the hundreds involved in the last version I constructed. Note to self—-make it with $20’s this time so that I am less likely to spend them on a visit to the ‘Apple Chapel.’

3    Time to re shoot and edit my promotional video. 6 minutes is too long now, what ever happened to people actually wanting to know what you do in the show? I should probably re-Photoshop my 8X10’s to look a couple of pounds skinnier and a few years younger. This resolution cut’s out the normal eat less/better and exercise more one that usually hits my list.

 4   Cut out the extra ‘hack’ lines that have snuck into my act due to laziness and that spirit of malaise that Obama assures me has overtaken our country. Try and continue putting a new joke into the act for every show, however, remember to cut those old ‘comfortable’ but dated ones.

5   Keep in better touch with some of my oldest and dearest friends in magic. You figure they will be around forever, but it just doesn’t work that way. I must also make some new friends and learn to appreciate them as much as some of the giants in magic I have been blessed to know in my first 40 plus years in magic. Maybe it is time to finally discard Ken Brooke’s ‘11^th Commandment’ about avoiding spending time with magicians, as they will mess with my performing skills for lay audiences.

6   As an addendum to resolution 5, I will start to perform at magic conventions and lecture to magic groups on a regular basis. I have a lot of very good and practical information to share. It is time to start doing it. The New Zealand Magic Convention later this year is a great start to this policy.

7   Stop being negative about the ‘Baffling Bra’ trick when I write my columns (I’m not changing the way I feel about it—just what I write!) and stop making unnecessary swipes at Franz Harary and Steve Wyrick, no—let’s not go too far!

Happy New Year!

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: david regal, Magic New Year's Resolutions

I work in a very exacting circuit in the cruise market and although you seldom get to meet your contemporaries but you get to hear about them. I certainly have heard a lot about Carl Andrews and amazingly it’s all highly complementary which is rather unusual! The bookers and Cruise Directors all rave about his performance and the quality of his show. Other performers have uniformly told me he is one of the nicest, helpful and considerable guys on the scene.

While I haven’t seen Andrew’s live show, his impact must be huge to achieve the recognition that his show always seems to get. Standing ovations are not customary for magicians on cruise ships but they are for Carl Andrews. I can’t wait to see what it is that he is doing so right! There must be plenty to learn from his performance.

The way I first actually encountered Carl was on the Internet. However, it wasn’t a magic forum or by an email—it was as a creator and magical inventor. You see Carl has a double life—–nothing sinister here though, he is a top-notch live performer and also a computer wiz. He has created over 16 top selling iPhone magic apps that are being used by magicians around the globe.

Carl began his magical career at about the same time as his computer skills began to blossom in the early 80’s. They continued to develop side by side and have made him     one of the most influential magicians in the world. I mean that quite literally, as there are magicians performing his digital magic in more countries than I can name.

Andrew’s first app available on iTunes was iBabble, a fun but non-magic illusion. He was just getting warmed up, and has since created 15 more apps.  In fact Carl has gone on to create some of the very finest pieces of digital magic ever to grace a smart phone. They show his mastery of both of his interests and the way he can combine them into the kind of direct and effective magic that lay people remember and talk about.

Want to give a prospective client a business card in a way that will cause them to keep it? Well, check out Carl’s ‘BizCardMagic’ and you need look no further. If you want to maximize the effectiveness of the magical ‘real estate’ on your iPhone, I highly recommend picking up ‘Loose Change Magic,’ his masterpiece ‘No Freakin’ Way,’ and his latest authentic gem ‘True Lies.’

I don’t think it is ever appropriate to do more than one ‘iTrick’ in any given session for any single person. If ever less is more then this iMagic is the area where it applies the most rigidly. However, the ability to present the right trick at the right time, with nothing that even appears to be a prop, is a golden gift to any performer.

I was recently privileged to see some updates he has made to one of his earlier effects ‘Magic Draw.’ It was a stunning addition to an already great piece of magic. Obviously Andrews doesn’t have a mind that stands still—he keeps thinking, developing and improving his magic. I like that quality.

One of the joys with the way Carl markets his digital creations is his ability to price them right. A lot of apps are free or cost a dollar or so, Carl prices his just a little higher, that way that they are reasonable but less likely to be bought (and poorly performed) by a non-magician. Let’s be honest, if you could buy a series of great tricks from a magic shop for a price range of under 5 bucks, you would be ecstatic with the bargain. Log on to iTunes and let the joy begin!

A nice guy, a great magician and a computer wiz all rolled into one! Carl Andrews is a force to be reckoned with. He is a man of the moment with his foot firmly placed in the door of the future

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Carl Andrews, iPhone Magic

Everyone in the magic world has been worried and concerned over the extent and scope of the damage to the Magic Castle in Hollywood that occurred recently. While the fire damage was considerably less than it could have been, as is so often the case, the water damage was a very real problem and has been causing the greatest concern.

I took the opportunity to visit the Castle last week and see how things were working out during what is being referred to as the ‘Magic Castle Lite’ phase of our beloved clubhouse’s refurbishing and eventual full scale re-opening. I am glad to say that while business was far from ‘as usual’ it was very functional and very, very busy.

My visit was on a Sunday night and the place was as packed as it possible could have been. In fact I’m guessing any visiting fire department official might have had an instant desire to start counting heads and exits! Maybe the reduced 10 Dollar cover and 20 Dollar buffet could have helped. In fact the buffet looked great and I might eat there a little more often at those prices! A couple of well drinks at 22 Dollars are pretty pricey additions to any evening and should help defray any losses in a regular reduction in the food prices.

The guests were checked in at the front desk but then entered the Castle through the side entrance to the lower area next to the library. The line for the buffet was long and seating limited and lots of guests were perched at weird spots, eating what looked like great food. The shows were confined to the Peller Theatre, the Parlour and the Palace and they ran very smoothly.

It was a delight to see Jamy Ian Swiss perform in the Peller Theatre, I was very impressed by his recent television appearance on ‘The Craig Ferguson Show,’ and watching him do 30 minutes of highly skilled, smoothly presented and deceptively relaxed looking card magic was a real highlight for me. This is the kind of specialized performance that you can really enjoy and admire based on its true magical skills. I thoroughly enjoyed watching, watching for and sometimes failing to see sleight-of-hand moves that I knew must have happened during the seamlessly constructed routines. Bravo, this was pure magic, presented in a slick and skilled manner that would bring a glow to any lover of ‘real close-up.’

Jamy’s show might have been slightly better served if his appearance had proceeded as scheduled in the Close-Up Gallery, however his sophisticated and polished performance skills made his highly specialized show a winner with everyone in the room, even if their viewing was slightly less optimal than the Close-Up Gallery would have allowed. If you love good card magic don’t miss this guy!

I sadly had to miss the appearance of my long-term friend Paul Green in the Parlour due to scheduling problems, but heard enough raves from visitors to know that he delivered the goods in his normal immaculate and heavy hitting manner. This guy is pure-pro all the way and always a credit to the magic world. Paul is one of the busiest pros in Los Angeles and achieves this by knowing his craft inside out.

The Palace was a quirkier affair. I was delighted to see the legendary Jim Steinmeyer perform two rare and arcane magic illusions. His scholarly and professorial presentation of these gems was the kind of thing that reminds you that the Castle really is a club for magicians. Frankly, I would have enjoyed a longer set as his segment was over all to briefly for my taste. When you entice one of the greatest minds in magic to give a rare public performance, I could use more of the show dedicated to the unique opportunity.

Performing the major portion of the show in the Palace was the relentlessly upbeat and smiling Alex Ramon. The crowd really enjoyed Ramon’s show and his experience with Ringling Brothers and the Disney touring magic show was highly evident. One tiny quibble, why follow Steinmeyer performing a re-creation of the still mindboggling Jarrett’s ‘Sawing Mystery’ with a similar box illusion that looked big enough in size to be the packing case for the tiny cabinet that made the Jarrett illusion so astonishing?

Other effects featured by Ramon were an update to the Die Box, involving an iPad, which rather overplayed the Lie Detector App involved, again proving that less really can be more. Much more effective was his introduction of a cute twist involving an iPhone into a rather standard Crystal Casket illusion. The highlight of Ramon’s act was a very effective sequence of magic involving a light bulb and a paper bag. It was a delightful routine that showed a great deal of originality and audience pleasing power. However, I would have gladly traded a little of his performance time for one more ‘forgotten gem’ from the mind of Jim Steinmeyer.

Over all, the entire evening proved that even functioning as ‘Castle Lite’ there was enough of everything needed to present the punters with a highly enjoyable experience. On a personal level, one of my highlights was standing at Valet parking after the show with ‘Card Guru’ Howard Hamburg discussing the exact quantity, quality and variety of passes used by Jamy Ian Swiss! Hey, sometimes a double undercut really just doesn’t do the job as well……….

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Howard Hamburg, Jamy Ian Swiss, Jim Steinmeyer, Magic Castle

Especially for his birthday, I want to share this story about Alan Watson, my Kiwi brother and editor from Magic New Zealand, that kinda’ got me thinking about writing up some disaster stories. I don’t think this story is that much of a disaster—but a pretty amazing moment!

As my regular readers know, I am no great fan of the ‘Baffling Bra’ trick. Just a personal thing and not based on the fact that it usually gets a big laugh—so does whacking your thumb with a hammer—but I exclude that for reasons of personal comfort! However………

Alan was performing the ‘Bra Trick’ at an event recently and had a once in a lifetime (unless the comedy Gods are kind!) event take place. At the end of the regular routine, as the girl is starting to leave the stage, after the trick he has added a little ‘kicker’ line and says, “Wait till next time she goes to the restroom!” and pulls a pair of ladies underwear out of his pocket and shows them to the audience.

The result of ‘kicker’ is usually a big laugh, but on this particular occasion it nearly brought the house down. After he did it, the female assistant immediately pulled her skirt up above waist level and it was very apparent that she wasn’t wearing ANY underwear, she then screamed and left the stage! Now that takes the trick to another level………

If you could guarantee this kind of a moment every time you did the trick, I would have to reconsider my opinion of the trick. Nothing gets laughs like a good dose of the old shock factor! Then again, we might have to have someone re-invent the old chains of Burlesque theaters just to house the magic acts.

If you have any good ‘disaster’ or ‘once in a blue moon’ stories send me an email and maybe we can make this a monthly feature. We all need a good laugh over what we do in magic. I have always felt that a Magician who takes what he does to seriously may just be the Worlds deadliest creature!

email me at nicklewin1@mac.com    

Posted in Magic, Magic and Magicians
Tags: Magic disasters